Knowledge Is Power
by Avelynn Tame
Summary: Mickey tells it like it is.


Title: Knowledge Is Power

Summary: Mickey tells it like it is.

Author's Notes: Damn Mickey for getting along with the Doctor at the end of WW3 – he's totally messed up the premise for this fic. Just try to imagine that they're still not keen on each other, OK?

Once again they were back on Earth in the present day.

"Just to say hi to mum and make sure she's OK," Rose had said.

That was all very well, but now Mickey the idiot had invited himself into the TARDIS while Rose was elsewhere, gossiping with her mum, no doubt.

Mickey, it turned out, didn't so much want to gossip as irritate the Doctor and surreptitiously suss out whether or not he'd been up to anything with Rose. His subtlety, however, left a lot to be desired. "I'd kill anyone who messed with Rose," he said pointedly, glancing at the Doctor's feet sticking out from under the central console.

"Mm-hmm," the Doctor replied distractedly.

"You know what I love about me and Rose, Doctor? The way we know each other inside out – we know _everything_." He cast a vicious glare at what he could see of the Doctor. "Bet you don't know anything about her."

The Doctor sighed. "Look, _Ricky_, I haven't got time for – "

"You know what her favourite colour is? Brown. Cos she says no one ever picks brown and it's an underrated colour. But she wears pink cos everyone says it looks good on her."

"That's fascinating, Ricky, but – "

"She had a pet rabbit when she was a kid, did you know _that_? It got out one day… some kid on the estate killed it and shoved it through her letterbox, all cut up. She cried for days. Or what about her birthday, huh? 30th of January. Our anniversary's on the 31st. Oh, and she hates soup, you know? Soup, porridge, and you know those fruit chew type sweets? She hates them too. Loves chocolate, though. And pizza. And I think this is weird, but you know those Kit Kat Chunkys? Yeah, she likes to cut off all the chocolate and save it for after she's eaten the wafer."

"I don't – "

"She wanted to be a nurse when she was little, but when she got older she changed her mind cos she didn't want to have to see people die all the time. Once she ran away from home – bet you didn't know that. Broke a vase, and her mum shouted, so she ran away. Slept in the park for a whole night before the police found her."

The Doctor was silent.

"What? Not going to tell me to shut up? All right – she does this really weird thing with sandwiches, sometimes – she eats the filling first and then the bread. I dunno why, she just does. And she's got a scar on her arm where she fell off a motorbike – Jimmy Stones's motorbike. She painted her bedroom black and left school for him, the arsehole. One time…" his voice faltered slightly. "One time she thought she was pregnant. By me. We thought we were going to be parents, but the test came back negative. I think she was more relieved than me… I would have loved a son." He glared at the Doctor's feet. "But you don't care, do you? You took her away from the people who know her – you don't know her, you haven't got a clue who she really is."

The Doctor scrambled out from beneath the console and thrust his face, contorted with anger, close to Mickey's. "_I've_ not got a clue? Let me tell you something – she saved my life and I saved hers, but we're by no means even because I owe her _everything_, do you understand? We're more than favourite colours and scars, Ricky; what we have transcends that. So don't you talk to me about what I don't know, OK? All these things you know about her, all these facts – they add up to _nothing_, because you've finally realised that she's too good for you, isn't that right?"

Mickey stared at him. "Maybe I have," he said finally, "but what about you? How long is it going to take you to realise that you can't give her what she wants – not all of it. And that's not knowledge, Doctor, that's just common sense."

The Doctor, breathing hard, leaned back against the console. "Rose and I need each other," he said bluntly. "If the time comes when she doesn't need me anymore, then I swear I'll do the right thing by her, but now, here, today… we're sticking together. That's just the way it is."

"The way what is?" Rose was back, lugging carrier bags through into the TARDIS.

The Doctor stood up immediately and went to help her. "What's all this?" He tried to peek in one of the bags but she slapped at his hands.

"Oi! It's clothes, mostly, plus magazines – "

The Doctor groaned.

" – and you can shut up, because they're interesting: travel, history, adventure… to give us some ideas." She caught sight of Mickey lurking at a distance. "No, thanks, Mickey, don't need any help with the bags, we're fine here."

Mickey stepped forward hesitantly. "Look, I… I might go."

She paused, and her eyes flickered between him and the Doctor. "Er… OK. I'm sensing an atmosphere anyway."

"Can I have a word outside?" he asked, casting a sullen look at the Doctor.

"Sure." She left the Doctor with the bags and they stepped out into London, shutting the door behind them. She fixed him with a concerned gaze. "Something wrong?"

"No, just…" He sighed. "Maybe we should call it a day, yeah?"

She seemed surprised. "What's brought this on?"

He shrugged. "Been thinking, that's all. I don't like sitting around here on my bum waiting for you to come back, and I don't want to ask you to choose… It's easier this way."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I suppose. Well… goodbye, then." She gave him a brief hug, then slipped back inside the TARDIS.

Mickey watched as it began to pulsate, and then disappeared altogether. She'd barely put up a fight, and he'd sort of expected that. But it occurred to him that for all the Doctor had said, he probably knew Rose a thousand times better than Mickey ever had. And that _hurt_.


End file.
